watchOS 11 update removes four faces from Apple Watch

Zac Hall | Sep 19 2024 - 8:23 am PT

It’s not just the Siri face that’s gone in watchOS 11. Apple has discontinued the analog Chronograph, Explorer, and Numerals watch faces as well.

Chronograph

Chronograph is one of the original faces that arrived with the first-gen hardware. It continued to exist alongside Chronograph Pro from watchOS 7 through watchOS 10. Chronograph Pro is essentially the same race stopwatch-based concept designed for modern watch displays.

Explorer

Explorer, on the other hand, is an interesting omission. The watch face debuted with the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE. Explorer has only ever been available on LTE-capable Apple Watch models. The analog watch face featured three sets of red and white hand options.

It also was the only watch face to feature a cellular signal indicator for several years. watchOS eventually gained a cellular signal complication for other watch faces, but the style of Explorer has not been replicated.

Numerals

Lastly, Numerals has been removed in watchOS 11 as well. Numerals is an analog watch face that debuted with watchOS 6. It featured a numerical hour marker behind analog watch hands. It could also display a complication. Color and style were customizable, and the number moved around the dial.

Reaction

The website Tech-Issues Today points to a Reddit thread where Apple Watch customers have discussed the set of removed Apple Watch faces since watchOS 11 launched this week. You can see each watch face and feature set for watchOS version here.